A cautionary tale.

I was thinking, as I began that slow drowsy descent into sleep, of the South African sunset, the rich colour as the fiery orb settled into the Indian Ocean and night rapidly descended.

The sounds of an African night, the cicadas, unseen but busy, the bullfrogs deeply resonant in the still warm air. The distant sound of an animal kill with its final scream and, if close to the shore line, the rhythmic crash of waves beating to a distant interminable drum. 


The night was always a time for caution a time to be weary, a time to check the locks and put the dog out. Night time is always instinctively a time when we feel at our most vulnerable. 
The dark holds potential danger, it provides natural cover for those who would do us harm and, in the politically ravaged society which is today's South Africa, harm is all around.
People turn to their beds their ears sensitive to the unusual, ready to respond, ready to press the alarm !! A nation in trauma which gets on with the business of living amidst the dying, unconsciously stressed with memories of a very different lifestyle not too long ago. We live in hope and deny the statistics, trapped in our past we become partially schizophrenic inhibiting a world of our own creation whilst reality is fraught with the unknown.
On waking there is the beautiful transformation of a new day. The air is cool and clear as the sun returns to bless the land, peeping above the horizon lighting the hazy clouds and transforming the earth, from the fear of the unseen to optimism as the world around is revealed once again and we still a part of it.
A busy day ahead the car nestles into the traffic and one is again confirmed of being a part of a rational system where we engage and trade our skills with others, talking of deals and projects and of the future ! Man,s inbuilt optimism competes against pessimism, offsetting the blight of depression, a scourge very prevalent within western secular society.
As the car wends its way home in the falling light the niggle of apprehension returns and the protective mind padlocks our reward for living in such a physically beautiful country which crass human stupidity has ruined for everyone.